Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric (GE), has frequently been hailed as the greatest business leader of our time and was the subject of a recent book, Jack Welch and the 4Es of Leadership, on how to apply his winning formula. We asked two executive coaches how they would go about developing “Welchness” in organisations.
Tony Cockerill writes: At the Centre for High Performance Development (CHPD), we have worked for more than 20 years to identify the behaviours most closely associated with high-performing leaders. These we group into four distinct clusters of behaviours:
- Strategic thinking: those around searching for information, forming ideas and concepts, and the ability to weigh and consider options;
- Inspirational: those of influencing, building confidence and presentation;
- Developing: namely, empathy, teamwork and developing people;
- Achieving: including proactivity and the constant seeking of improvements in standards
This is the model we use to develop leaders in organisations across countries and industries. It underpins a proven approach to assessment, development, coaching and teambuilding. Even so, we are always on the lookout for new thinking and new ways to understand leadership in complex, dynamic organisations. When Jeffrey Krames published his latest book on the leadership approach of Jack Welch, we were interested to see what we could learn from one of the most successful CEOs of recent times. Welch identified the “4Es” of leadership. He looked for leaders with energy, leaders that could energise, leaders with edge and leaders who could execute. When we compare Welch’s formula with our own framework, we can see that he was looking primarily for behaviours in the “inspiring” (energy and energise) and “achieving” (edge and execute) clusters, and he placed great store on developing people.
So, there may be more to high-performance leadership than the 4Es, but how do we apply Welch’s insight to the organisations that we work with? First, let us consider the Welch context. When he took the helm of GE in the early 1980s it was typical of large, mature organisations. Growth was single figure, organic and uninspiring. The environment was bureaucratic and political, and it was tough to get things done. Development and coaching were seen as remedies to poor performance. On the other hand, GE was populated by highly intelligent people capable of generating excellent ideas. They were knowledgeable and had developed (possibly overdeveloped) an excellent teamworking ethic. Committees were formed, generated excellent solutions and then struggled to deliver them. Welch knew GE needed drastic surgery, followed by reinvigorating and reawakening. This he did over a period of energetic leadership lasting two decades. He encouraged a strong leadership style where tough performance decisions were made routine (edge), where leaders drove hard for results (execute), and where personal energy, passion and enthusiasm were seen as must-haves (energy and energise). He was, in effect, delivering a shot in the arm to an organisation that had become complacent and flabby. He was creating disruption by focusing on behaviours that ran against the prevailing climate.
Consciously or not, Welch isolated the behaviours that were already well developed in GE (probably those around our framework’s “strategic thinking” cluster), and did nothing to develop these. Instead he pursued the underdeveloped behaviours (“achieving” and “inspiring”) ruthlessly. With our clients, regardless of the intervention we are adopting, we apply a similar approach. We need to support them to develop the behaviours that will make the most difference to them as individuals and to their organisations. It may not be comfortable, it may even be disturbing, and at times our clients may not thank us for the disruption we are causing. Just as when golfers adjust their swing they may experience a drop in performance before reaping the reward, only with practice, reinforcement, encouragement and time do our clients realise the benefits. Organisations need to identify the behaviours they lack. These will probably be reflected in the company culture and climate. It is important to develop these behaviours consistently, measure them, assess against them and embed them over the long term to effect change. Welch used the 4Es at GE because they weren’t already there. At the CHPD we work with organisations to identify their developed and underdeveloped behaviours, and put in place processes to build for high performance.
Dr Tony Cockerill is an executive coach and founder of the Centre for High Performance Development, which is delivering the new CIPD course, Strategic Leadership for HR. 020 8612 6202 www.cipd.co.uk/training
Veronica Lim writes:
Jack Welch is unusual in having had a long tenure with GE before he took over the helm. Many leaders are expected to come in and turn a company around in a short space of time. Welch also stands out as having learned a different way to be and think about himself from an early age. His mother was apparently instrumental in this, telling him, for example, that while others may call his stutter a speech impediment, it was because he was so clever that his tongue simply couldn’t keep up with the speed of his thoughts.
Energy and energise
At the heart of how I coach is energy. Energy is an excellent piece of feedback that tells us whether the person is engaged, fired up or passionate about the subject at hand – whether it is the vision, the task, the action or their own ability.
In his book, The Inner Game of Work, Timothy Gallwey stated that high performance = potential – interference. Focusing on potential and seeing the potential in an idea is energy giving. Letting go of interference – habits, assumptions or beliefs that are non-supportive of our goals – releases energy drains. Coaching is all about fuelling an individual’s energy and, when they are energised, it is easier for them to energise others. Good coaching leads to a visible shift in the coachee’s energy.
Edge
Edge comes from a sense of self: self-assuredness, self-confidence and self-belief. It is also fuelled by the level of belief in what needs to be done. Great leaders are completely focused on this, and coaching helps people to focus and stay focused. As coaches, we can help to uphold a vision when the going gets tough. But I don’t totally agree with Welch’s emphasis on competition. When someone is really hooked in to their own sense of vision and purpose, it becomes something greater than competition. For example, Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela wouldn’t be seen as competitive but they have achieved great feats and are seen by many as great leaders. There is a distinction between having a competitive spirit and being competitive.
Execution
Great coaching is about performance taking action, holding oneself accountable and helping the client to eliminate the interference referred to by Gallwey so that action is easier and internal stumbling blocks are removed.
Coaching encourages, empowers, supports, and facilitates new levels of thinking. Nobody teaches you leadership as such. While there are leadership skills, true leadership comes from within – starting with how you think and feel about yourself. This thinking and feeling is moulded from a young age. Welch’s mother encouraged, empowered, supported and facilitated him to new levels of thinking, just as coaches do. But most other people go through a cultural conditioning that criticises, finds fault and generally instils a level of fear about making mistakes and looking like a fool. We learn to focus on what’s wrong and try to develop weaknesses instead of harnessing strengths. Welch knew that it is far easier to harness strengths because strengths come more easily to us this builds success and energy.
The pure essence of coaching is about ideas asking great questions that facilitate the client’s thinking to come up with new ideas. Welch said: “The hero is the one with the idea,” and “I know if I pan this room tonight and talk to everyone here, I’d learn a zillion things about how to do my job better.” Clearly, he had an open mind, asked lots of questions and listened to the ideas of others. This is exactly what the coach asks of clients that they be open to new ideas, take measured risks and experiment.
Once GE started to win, people began to find a great deal to get excited about in Welch’s approach. It takes courage to stay the course and great leaders have the vision, foresight and faith to stick with it when others would give up. This self confidence and strength of character comes from within and can be developed through coaching.
Veronica Lim is an executive coach and founder of coaching company Inner Thinking
The “4Es” of leadership
- The 4E leader has boundless energy, drive and embraces change.
The 4E leader energises and knows how to spark others to perform.
The 4E leader has edge, is competitive and knows how to make difficult decisions.
The 4E leader executes. The best leaders know how to convert energy and edge into action and results.